Six Days of Creation at St. Tikhon Seminary 2011

“There is no doubt in my mind that Six Days of Creation is the best icon workshop in the country and, with the help of our Lord, we will be able to improve and expand for the benefit of all involved.” V. Rev. D. Alexander Atty, D. Min., Dean of St. Tikhon Orthodox Theological Seminary

The Six Days of Creation icon-painting course concluded its fifth year in residence at St. Tikhon on June 25, 2011. Hexaemeron wishes to thank Fr. Alexander Atty, Matushka Olga, Fr. Nilus and the rest of the staff for a wonderful week in the Poconos at South Canaan, Pennsylvania. We are especially grateful for the cooking skills of seminarian Alexis Baldwin who was able to make us enjoy abstaining from “flesh foods” during the Apostles Fast this year (is that a sin?).

It is always a blessing for us to hold this course at St. Tikhon. It feels appropriate bringing students from all over North America there to learn the ancient art of icon painting. Many American saints walked the grounds of St. Tikhon Monastery and Seminary: Saints Tikhon of Moscow, Nicholai of Zicha, Raphael of Brooklyn, and Alexis Toth. I like to believe that these holy persons are praying for us in our mission to provide a traditional Orthodox approach to the icon. At St. Tikhon, our students are able to take part in the daily schedule of Vespers, Vigil, Holy Hours, and Divine Liturgy services in St. Tikhon Monastery church. These services become the prayerful foundation for the temporary community formed by our coming together as students of the icon. The services also provide the context for realizing the meaning and purpose of the icon. We are thankful to Fr. Nicodemus who annually leads our students on a tour explaining the history of the icons in the monastery church and the collection in the icon museum.

Our students created some amazing panel icons this year. Besides having first-time students, we have many dedicated friends who come back every year to learn from Master Iconographer Ksenia Pokrovsky. Ksenia has been restoring old icons and painting new icons, and teaching iconography for 50 years, first in Russia and now in America. Her store of knowledge and experience is a treasure that seems bottomless. Some of the work produced by students who have been participating in the Six Days of Creation at various locations over the years is breathtaking for its beauty and its spiritual grace.

Marek Czarnecki, who shares in many aspects in guiding our courses, has worked with Ksenia Pokrovsky for more than 12 years. He has become well known as an iconographer and teacher. The value he adds to the overall success of our program is immeasurable. Ksenia’s daughter, Anna Pokrovsky-Gouirev, is also one of our teachers. Anna has been working alongside her mother for many years on commissions for Orthodox churches. Her icons are deeply moving, and her quiet teaching style communicates that depth of achievement.

This year, more than ever, we desire to begin establishing a fixed residence for our school in order to train iconographers toward certification. We see the great need for authentic training on the one hand, and on the other, the great desire for such a program. The traveling crash-course workshop model in this country has turned iconology education into a roadside market for spiritual tourists and bargain shoppers. Students who come to us are weary of this largely ineffective method. And so are we.

We are working toward a permanent home. Keep tuned. As for certification, it does not exist in this country for many reasons: the newness of icon-making in America which has a very shallow historical foundation in Orthodox sacred arts to build upon; the free-for-all environment in America in which icon-making is considered just another art form of self-expression; and little ecclesiastical interest in setting standards due to a lack of understanding of what standards in icon-making are (and, here, we do not mean “style).”

We propose to rescue the teaching of icon-making from the current hobby and/or business mentality and lead the way toward returning it to the Church. There are models for this, for example in Romania where those wanting to become iconographers receive a complete education before taking on commissions. We do not expect the idea of certification to be easily accepted, nor do we desire to contest entrenched attitudes that resist it. We are responding to a need often voiced by our students over the last decade that we have been offering training in icon-making.

Thank you, Reg. It was a wonderful week with our wonderful students who are doing such good work. They are our inspiration. Getting ready for the workshop in Maggie Valley, September 11-17. Folks coming from Brazil, California and many other states. We can’t be everywhere; it’s time to put down roots and make a home for all. Pray for us. God bless!

I think this is a brilliant idea! There are so many people writing icons that do not understand the responsibility they owe to this sacred art. If as a student I churn out substandard work, then it not only reflects poorly on my own integrity but also on the reputation of my teachers. In most other types of art when the artist is successful then it may bring fame and fortune to the artist. An iconographer’s role is to connect and deepen an idividual’s relationship to God. It is to teach and not an extension of their ego. If the iconographer is successful then he brings glory to God.

A certification process gives a person credibility as an iconographer. It tells the world that this person was educated in the proper preparation for writing an icon.

Even though I have studied with Marek for years, I still learned so much at the St. Tikhon’s workshop I attended two years ago. There is always more to learn!

What a well thought out response, Jody! We need to open up this discussion, not to discourage anyone who may see iconography as a potential business, but to emphasize the “responsibility” in pursuing it. Certification may seem unnecessary because, of course, there are already many people functioning as iconographers for whom what we propose sounds presumptuous and threatening. We are not responding to what exists: it is what it is, and much fine work is the result. God bless all who prayerfully apply themselves to this service to “deepen [his or her] relationship with God.”

Nor do we intend to debunk or even abandon the “workshop model.” It is through our long experience with this model that we have encountered many serious students who understand precisely what you have said. Someone we know and love has said, “Iconography is hard work.” It is to this understanding of genuine struggle that we desire to find a more complete way to help with that hard work. As yet, we do not fully know what design “certification” will take. It is very likely, and most probable, that our students already are that design.

[…] Andrew. Our interest in these discoveries was high when the news broke during our workshop at St. Tikhon Orthodox Theological Seminary the week of June 19-26, 2011. The prototypes we offer as instructive examples and make available for […]